Back in 2009 or 2010 (I forget which year exactly), a bunch of us software geeks were disappointed we couldn't attend the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference. Everyone on Twitter was posting their status as #AtPDC. So what did we do? On half a day's notice, we organized a virtual conference, NotAtPDC, complete with online presentations and Q&As.

Martin L. Shoemaker wrote:Back in 2009 or 2010 (I forget which year exactly), a bunch of us software geeks were disappointed we couldn't attend the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference. Everyone on Twitter was posting their status as #AtPDC. So what did we do? On half a day's notice, we organized a virtual conference, NotAtPDC, complete with online presentations and Q&As.

Just a thought...

My husband and I used to attend some sort of National Microsoft event. We went to the one in Denver in 2007 and the one in Boston in 2006. Tyler went to a few more without me.

We were talking about a getting a Skype or Facebook chat set up for some of us not there.

Martin L. Shoemaker wrote:Back in 2009 or 2010 (I forget which year exactly), a bunch of us software geeks were disappointed we couldn't attend the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference. Everyone on Twitter was posting their status as #AtPDC. So what did we do? On half a day's notice, we organized a virtual conference, NotAtPDC, complete with online presentations and Q&As.

Just a thought...

This is what I'm waiting for. It could be done so easily on Second Life. As it is they have classes and educational areas for building/programming. I've been to a lot of classes, they are fun. Most are just run through text chat, though voice is used too.

Some of us on Facebook were talking about doing a NotAtWorldCon Facebook chat this weekend. Any takers?

One third of my friend's feed is WorldCon. Another third is DragonCon. And pretty much the rest of it is people oblivious to either con or insanely jealous. What I'm really mad about is about half of my online writing group are meeting up all over the place. I have yet to meet most of them in person.

I'd like to, Amanda, but it will depend on when. It appears I will be going to an air show tomorrow. I would like to state for the record that I HATE airplanes. They make me nervous, they make me airsick, they make me bored when I'm just standing around looking at them. I am hoping to find something write-able out of it, at least. My excitement level is not off the charts.

Ah well, I get to go to my writer's group afterwards and get my last story-in-a-day story shredded, so that should be good. Only one of them is at WorldCon...

Okay, created the even on Facebook and sent invites. I set it to where only guests can invite people and it's only visible to invitees so if there's anyone else that wants to have a pity party, we can invite them.

LDWriter2 wrote:Wow, finally I come back here and find all types of plans. The Facebook thing sounds like Google+ they have ways to meet too.

I came back because I wouldn't mind whining about not being able to go. Never get to go to any cons, used to be a small one here but it faded years ago. The closest one is the Comic Con in San Diego.

Always fun to have a pity party and/or discussing different aspects of writing.

We're going to try more online meetups down the road.

Excellent. To be honest, one of the reasons I bowed out on this one was because I intended to stay up late for the Hugos. I didn't want two extreeemely late nights in a row, especially as I was already feeling a bit tired out from a mild stomach bug. But next time I hope. Maybe we can even schedule something a bit earlier.

LDWriter2 wrote:I came back because I wouldn't mind whining about not being able to go. Never get to go to any cons, used to be a small one here but it faded years ago. The closest one is the Comic Con in San Diego.

There's always LosCon in LA, but a lot of people can't make that one because it is thanksgiving weekend. (I however never miss LosCon, and WotF always has a presence.)

I was happy to be able to come to at least part of the chat and to get to talk to Amanda on the phone while we tried to figure out why my computer was not working in the talk-y thing-y. Maybe because I refer to it as a talk-y thing-y and not its real name. We all decided more scheduled chats should be in order. Maybe next time I wont have so many technical issues all in a row. AKA: Next time I'll do the chat when I know my husband will be home to help me figure out why the internet keeps kicking me off or talk-y thing-y wont work.